Department of Communication Studies, Bloomsburg University.
Department of Communication, University at Albany, SUNY.
Health Commun. 2021 Oct;36(11):1368-1377. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1751401. Epub 2020 Apr 14.
Romantic partners' communication about sex has been shown to enhance marital satisfaction and well-being, yet is often associated with high levels of uncertainty due to the challenging and potentially face-threatening topics involved in such discussion. While much literature focuses on sexual health information seeking, relational partners' uncertainty management related to sexual satisfaction has not been examined. This study focused on married couples' discussion of sexual satisfaction, tested the theory of motivated information management (TMIM; Afifi & Weiner, 2004) within this context, and examined relational moderators that could influence relational partners' communication about sexual satisfaction. Data from 248 married participants suggested that TMIM effectively predicted five different information management strategies, including direct and indirect information seeking, avoidance, cognitive reappraisal, and disclosure, although the processes through which uncertainty discrepancy influenced information management differed depending on the information management strategy. Furthermore, results indicated relational factors such as marital quality, relational closeness, and communal coping moderated TMIM paths in distinct ways. Theoretical and practical implications for relational partners' uncertainty management about sexual satisfaction are discussed.
浪漫伴侣之间关于性的沟通已被证明可以提高婚姻满意度和幸福感，但由于此类讨论涉及到具有挑战性和潜在的威胁性的话题，因此通常会伴随着高度的不确定性。虽然大量文献侧重于性健康信息的寻求，但与性满意度相关的关系伙伴的不确定性管理尚未得到研究。本研究关注已婚夫妇对性满意度的讨论，在这一背景下检验了动机信息管理理论（TMIM；Afifi 和 Weiner，2004），并研究了可能影响关系伙伴关于性满意度沟通的关系调节因素。来自 248 对已婚参与者的数据表明，TMIM 有效地预测了五种不同的信息管理策略，包括直接和间接的信息寻求、回避、认知重评和披露，尽管不确定性差异影响信息管理的过程因信息管理策略而异。此外，研究结果表明，婚姻质量、关系亲密和共通应对等关系因素以不同的方式调节 TMIM 路径。讨论了关系伙伴对性满意度的不确定性管理的理论和实践意义。
